Low cost homes row

PUBLISHED: 05:57 31 August 2006 | UPDATED: 09:48 24 May 2010

A DISABLED woman says plans to put affordable housing near her quiet road are 'grossly unfair and cruel.' Julia Walker, who lives in Well Park in Congresbury, says the new development will be built right in the middle of property owned by vulnerable peopl

A DISABLED woman says plans to put affordable housing near her quiet road are 'grossly unfair and cruel.'Julia Walker, who lives in Well Park in Congresbury, says the new development will be built right in the middle of property owned by vulnerable people.Mrs Walker has an illness affecting her bones and has to take morphine to help her sleep.The 65-year-old, who says she is the spokesman for about 30 residents in the area, said: "Twenty feet from my back door will be another house. My road is quiet and populated by old people and now it is going to be used as an access point to the new development."Many residents are too old, ill or disabled to do anything about it."Ideally I would like this whole thing stopped. It is grossly unfair and cruel."We are going to be trapped between a council estate and affordable housing."Planners were granted outline permission to build affordable houses on land off Well Park earlier this year but the details of the application were referred to the south area committee by North Somerset councillor Tom Leimdorfer on Wednesday.The committee decided to put the matter back to September's meeting to give the parish council time to respond to proposals and to give the applicant time to carry out an ecological survey. Crested newts and slow worms have been seen in the valley that borders the site. Cllr Leimdorfer told the committee the parish council had not had time to respond to the proposal.He said: "I'd like to see the whole package from the applicants including the ecological survey so we can be confident we get as good an application as possible. This is fairly big for the future and we have to get it right."A total of 18 letters of objection were sent to North Somerset about the proposal, raising concerns like noise, pedestrian safety, flood risk and concerns for wildlife.